Anyone ever worked for a Union?

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BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
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It's a local distribution company - we are Budweiser's only distributor in the entire state. The salesmen are paid 70/30 split for salary/commission on top of their respective bonuses. You can make decent money as a salesman where I currently work, but since I live in an oil field town, beer sales are directly tied to how busy the oil field is in the area and since it's been dead since 2015, all our sales are way down. Nobody can even come close to their projected numbers, so every month the sales team loses their monthly commissions and their bonuses. If I'm going to stake my paycheck on the mercy of the oil field, I'd rather be working in the oil field and be making $30+ per hour and working 110+ hours a week again.

As for contacts, where I live, it's far better to know people high up in the oil and gas industry than in sales. Though I suppose it would be different if I lived in a place where oil field or industrial work was trumped by other industries. Sales people are a dime a dozen around here and usually consist of car or mobile home salesmen. That being said, I have thought about trying it out because even oil and gas companies need salesmen, but the people who get those jobs are generally the ones who personally know the owners of other companies - the ones who can give them lines on deals and under the table dealing. It's an extremely close-knit group for most of the cases.

Edit: Just noticed your quote says BoomerD, though that person hasn't even commented in this thread.

BoomerD hasn't commented? That blabberfingers commented in post 7 above! :p

Have you considered seeking your "fame and fortune" elsewhere? It' easy to do...if you don't have ties to hold you there.

Anyway...are you personally a good fit for the sales job? Some come to it naturally...others struggle. I'd fucking starve as a salesman. Just don't like people emough to do it. <shrug>
It sounds to me like the change to tbe other delivery job is a no-brainer. More money, better bennies, perhaps better worki g conditions...BUT, if you have lots of beer delivery experience...could you work for a different distributor in a different city/state?
 

Geekbabe

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Oct 16, 1999
32,167
2,399
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www.theshoppinqueen.com
Union worker here. Unions can be great or they can be like mine, people at the top of the pay scale grovel & beg to get any sort of pay increase while new people come in making close to what we do. I really appreciated the almost 4K increase in my health insurance this coming year too. I also loved their request for a 30% increase in dues! The employer sends in polished labor lawyers & the union sends reps looking like they are auditioning for a thug life tv series.

I work hard & my only question is how to get these people out of here at this point!
 

Humpy

Diamond Member
Mar 3, 2011
4,463
596
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When I was a kid I would spend summers working (shoveling sand, fetching tools, etc. easy stuff) for the family construction company. It was fun and I got paid like $20 a day. My first exposure to a union was when one of the residential jobs was picketed because the plumbers or someone were non-union. Even being like 10 years old my first thought was why aren't these fuckers working like the rest of us? Seemed retarded to me.

Regardless, reading the OP it sounds like his heart will take him back to the oil fields.
 

Stg-Flame

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2007
3,494
470
126
BoomerD hasn't commented? That blabberfingers commented in post 7 above! :p

That guy must have been really sneaky.

As for the rest, I don't plan on relocating. I've been to other places but I like it here and so does my girlfriend. For the sales position, my boss already has me sell my own route when my current salesman is out. It's not hard and all my accounts like me a lot so it's not hard to get them to help me out when and where I need it. For me though, I normally hate people and I prefer to work alone, but I'm also extremely good at bullshitting on top of knowing when I need to suck it up and do what needs to be done to succeed at my job.

Basically what it boils down to is being a vendor in this town is about on-par with working as a cashier at a gas station or being a stocker at Wal-Mart. The pay is low because they know the moment someone quits, they have 40 more people with a Class A CDL lined up for a job. We are the only vendors who are salary, but even the other ones who are hourly get paid about the same as us, so it's not cost effective to be in this line of work if you aren't fresh out of school (CDL or otherwise).

Regardless, reading the OP it sounds like his heart will take him back to the oil fields.
I want to, I really do. But after discussing it with my girlfriend in depth, I think I'll try to make a living outside of the oil field for now. As much as I want to go back, it just put too much of a strain on our relationship on top of everything else that came with working non-stop. Back in 2015 we went seven months without a day off and while I don't remember anything specific about the jobs we were on, I do remember how much I made during that time. I should also note that from 2010 to 2015, I saw 37 divorces while working in the oil field. It's not just the hours that strains the relationship, but it's also knowing that your spouse/significant other is working in an extremely dangerous line of work and might not come home. When I got hired on at my current job as a beer vendor, I asked my boss if I would have to sign up for AD&D insurance and he had no idea what I was talking about. When I explained what it meant (Accidental Death and Dismemberment) and that it was mandatory at my last job, he was floored. He didn't believe something like that actually exists. If you didn't sign up for AD&D insurance, you weren't allowed to go in the field.
 
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Ackmed

Diamond Member
Oct 1, 2003
8,476
523
126
I'm in a union at work. Lots of ignorance posted here so far. As for my experience, it's been pretty good. Good is, everyone is paid the same. Man, woman, black, white, straight, gay, etc. Bad, is everyone is paid the same. No matter the quality of the work done. As long as it gets done. Union dues aren't great, but at least tax deductible. It's nice knowing my pay raises, and new contract bonuses are nice.

Overall its worth it. I've seen them fight for people in trouble, and kept their job. Of course the union and job play a huge rolr. Making blanket statements is silly.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
62,681
11,024
136
I'm in a union at work. Lots of ignorance posted here so far. As for my experience, it's been pretty good. Good is, everyone is paid the same. Man, woman, black, white, straight, gay, etc. Bad, is everyone is paid the same. No matter the quality of the work done. As long as it gets done. Union dues aren't great, but at least tax deductible. It's nice knowing my pay raises, and new contract bonuses are nice.

Overall its worth it. I've seen them fight for people in trouble, and kept their job. Of course the union and job play a huge rolr. Making blanket statements is silly.

Yep...there are good unions, bad unions, and GREAT unions. PART of the difference is the participation of the members. Don't get involved, don't go to union meetings, even occasionally, don't let union management know what you want...you'll get whatever you vet.
 

zCypher

Diamond Member
Aug 18, 2002
6,115
171
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Union is only a good thing when the membership is involved, well informed and empowered. Unfortunately this has not been my observation with 6+ years in a major national telco. My experience has been that not enough people get involved, so the union ultimately has no real leverage. The company knows this, and always gets their way one way or another. Even if a very unfair contract was negotiated, the membership will still vote in favour of it just cause they would rather not go on strike, even if it would be the right move. That's what happened in the last recent agreement, where many unnecessary concessions were made, a pay freeze was put in place, and verbage for mandatory overtime was written into the agreement, among so many other things. Everyone just bitched and complained among themselves, and rolled over voting yes, with no lube please. It might be easy for me to say, given that i don't have as much to lose as some people - but still, I think the membership needs to be prepared to do whatever it takes in order to actually be effective.

Having the union there also hasn't done anything to protect Canadian jobs either. They continue to expand offshore campuses all the time, sometimes eliminating entire onshore teams in one swift cut, and this hasn't been limited to entry level or frontline positions either. Access to sensitive information and networks has been made available to people outside the country, solely on the supposed cost saving basis, which can be a serious national security concern.

I know that for some people, the union's presence should represent job fairness and job security, but my personal experiences have been that it protects the lazy and incompetent while not rewarding the high performers, and in many cases, has actually been a big obstacle to career development! The union blames the company, the company blames the union, neither are based on actual fact, but they all just play that card.

I think that, at best, there is a whole lot of room for improvement.